TV on mobile phones is the next Holy Grail for mobile operators and Orange UK has decided that the service is mature enough to be launched on the market.

Starting from next week, the British consumers who have 3G mobile phones and are customers of Orange will be able to watch nine channels on their phones. The charge for the service will be $18.25 per month or £10.

The full channel list available for the launch is a mixture of sport, news and entertainment channels. The British will watch on their mobile phones channels as ITN News, CNN, Big Brother, Celebrity Love Island, Comedy Time, Cartoon Network, Toon World, Fashion TV and extreme sports.

All of the channels will be streamed over the Orange 3G network and are available through the new Orange TV section on Orange World.

Orange chief marketing officer Alexis Dormandy said, "Our customers will be the first in the UK to watch TV on their mobiles, be that CNN or 24 hour coverage of the Big Brother house. This signals the start of a huge new opportunity for our customers, broadcasters, handset manufacturers and production companies."

The service initially will be available only on Nokia 6680 handsets, with more handsets to follow during the course of this year and further channels to be added within the next weeks.

New 3G customers can watch the Orange TV channels free for three months and they can access the service using a free 1GB-per month Try data bundle.